lost from the start The disaster was a foretold tragedy.
Many reasons are cited for the first round elimination of the 2023 WBC. Before starting from the root cause, the problem of this competition was self-evident.
After systematic preparation and complete preparation, the game could not be played, so the players could not perform at their full potential. Also, the fact that they were not able to properly implement winning tactics for each game by knowing the opponent clearly was also a failure.
In terms of war, the strategy of ‘planning, organizing, and conducting various battles to win the war’ failed, and the technology and tactics to cope with the combat situation of each war were also lacking. In the end, it means that it was a predicted failure.
The failure of the strategy is a problem that is all responsible for the KBO, the KBO Technical Committee, and the baseball team coach Lee Kang-cheol. Without a full-time coach and unable to find a suitable training ground, the national team eventually traveled tens of thousands of kilometers and ended up entering Osaka, Japan, not the venue of the competition, but the venue of the evaluation match, only five days before the competition.
In this process, players from the national team, who were not in Arizona as a training ground, went through the process of entering Korea at the training ground and going to the United States one more time.
In the case of each team in the KBO League, it was enough to recover over time from the problem of the distance of movement of the training ground that started on the other side of the globe and the difficulties of adjusting to jet lag, but the national team is in a position to play actual games right away. If there is a setback in the preparation process due to bad weather, etc., the pitchers who need to prepare by increasing the number of pitches step by step over at least a few weeks to several months as well as managing the condition of the hitters suffer a serious blow.
Pitchers are sensitive to all kinds of variables, such as how many days they take a break during the season, where they pitch, when they pitch in the bullpen, and whether they follow a routine. In the end, the cause of the sluggishness of pitchers who stood out compared to fielders was that young pitchers with relatively little experience were unable to improve their physical condition to 100% despite their efforts.
Since there was no full-time manager in the first place, a total of six clubs are visiting Arizona, and kt Wiz, led by manager Lee Kang-cheol, is also located in Arizona, so the plan to set up a training ground in Arizona is a reasonable idea.
However, if these problems eventually occurred due to suspension of training due to bad weather, cancellation of practice games, and up to 35 hours of travel due to flight cancellation, the conclusion was that the answer was not an alternative, but field training in Japan, which was more advantageous for environmental adaptation and time lag from the beginning. comes out Even more so, Australia, which is hard to see as a proper association, also had jet lag adaptation and training for about two weeks. The difficulties of long-distance travel and the problem of adjusting to jet lag were fully predictable and should have been prepared for, even if variables aside.
Even the detailed tactics for each game leave regret. National team coach Lee Kang-cheol reveals that there were mistakes in his management immediately after his elimination by game or tournament. At the same time, he insists on blaming himself, not the players. However, he reacted sharply to the pitcher abuse controversy, saying, “Find out how many pitchers are used in the Korean series and talk about it.”
However, coach Lee’s game-by-game tactics have many points to be criticized, not criticized. Even in the way pitchers were hired in the first place, position destruction was a high-risk strategy. In the first place, it was forced to wear clothes that did not fit because they saw the limits bigger than the side that made use of the strengths of the pitchers.
In the case of unavoidable cases, there are cases where it is solved through tricks, but in the end, a mysterious number did not come out. For example, in the game against Australia in the first game, all pitchers were waiting except for the pitchers who were scheduled to start in the second game. However, the pitchers who were regarded as the bullpen victory card did not come out, and after giving up runs in the middle of the game, they lost by one point.
Kim Gwang-hyun, who came out as a starter for the second game, also said, “It was decided around the 7th inning against Australia. He explained that it was the card he was going to use if he went to the finish line.” Even on the 8th, the day before the match against Australia, Kim Gwang-hyeon did not expect that he would appear in the match against Japan on the 10th, two days later.
Even if he was put in a difficult situation due to the loss in Game 1, Kim Gwang-Hyun was initially building his body and mindset by increasing the number of pitches so that he could throw all his strength in short innings for several months, and even just a day ago. In the end, it is a failure of detailed operation that Kim Gwang-hyun, who had been fighting 5 strikeouts and no runs until the 2nd inning against Japan despite a sudden start, was not replaced while giving up 2 walks in the 3rd inning.
As many pointed out, the appearance among 15 pitchers was a structure that was biased to a few in the end. It was inevitable in the previous national teams, but this situation only intensified in this national team. The story that we came up with a strategy in the first place but went wrong in detailed tactics is an excuse that we usually make after the situation has occurred.
There was no selection of starting field lineups for the 1st to 3rd games, or flexible replacements and strategies during the game. Even if they were the weakest and had relatively little pressure, winning 22-2 in the final match against China with a large number of backup members meant that they could not use the best players in the previous games.
In the end, questions remain about the power analysis of the first match against Australia, in which everything was staked. Australia pitched tall lefty Jack O’roclean as the starting pitcher against Korea, and righty Mitch Nunnborn as the second pitcher. The two put up a good fight side by side, and Korea completely gave them the flow at the beginning of the game, blocking them perfectly until one out in the 5th inning.
Coincidentally, however, the two appeared side by side in Australia’s final match against the Czech Republic on the 13th. It can be seen that the rest days coincided with the number of pitches or pitched innings, but the fact that they appeared side by side in the game 1 against Korea and the game 4 against the Czech Republic, which were the watershed for advancing to the quarterfinals in the first place, means that it was an actual ace card. In fact, Australia had good performances in both of their two games, and even won the game.
However, national team coach Lee Kang-cheol revealed that the starting pitcher, Jack O’Roughlin, was not a pitcher that was expected to be selected, and that he prepared for left-handed pitchers intensively. In the end, it means that Australia’s victory card was not expected at all, and the power analysis or opponent’s response method was not properly performed.
However, the problem is that Australia has already operated a combination of O’roclean and Nonborn in the evaluation match against JR Kyushu on the 6th prior to the finals. At the time, Australia suffered a 3-15 defeat when the mound collapsed, but even aside from the result, it was a failure of power analysis that the pitchers who had dared to appear in the evaluation match in Japan were not expected to appear.
The same was true of the second match against Japan. Japan decided early on the starting pitcher candidates, and the tandem (second starting pitcher) that followed it was also confirmed as Shota Imana and announced through the media. Korea performed well by scoring 3 points against Yu Darvish, who was expected to be the starter, but Imana, the follow-up pitcher, failed to properly target Shota, and fell silent again.
Of course, Imanaga is said to be the best left-handed pitcher in Japan, but the fact that the opponent clearly revealed his hand, but he could not attack even after knowing it, does not change. Japanese pitchers who came out after that were also in a sufficiently predictable range, but in the end, Korea only scored 1 point from pitchers excluding starter Darvish. Even if the skills of Japanese pitchers are so excellent, the purpose of analysis and preparation is to break them.
In summary, coach Lee and the coaching staff believed in the players’ autonomy as much as possible before the game and ‘prepared themselves’, and in the end, even if it was not due to a problem of will, as a result of the players’ condition gap, ‘only reliable players’ were used in the tournament. comes to a conclusion However, it can be inferred that he started the game without knowing the opponent for sure.
Many baseball fans and those who did not usually enjoy baseball, but watched the national team’s game through this opportunity, wondered whether Korean players could not play baseball like that. Despite the bubble in the KBO league and the clear gap in skill with Japan, we couldn’t even easily understand the process because we couldn’t show our best in the end.
It can be pointed out that finding the culprit is a wasteful and peripheral issue. However, starting with this competition,안전놀이터 we have to reconsider each one. After finding a way to solve the immediate problem, it is necessary to change everything from the full-time manager system to the national team operation management and player selection system.
At the same time, it is necessary to find a way to solve the crisis of Ambaseball, where the basic constitution of Korean baseball has fallen, and furthermore, in connection with the Amathlete world, the fundamental cause should be reviewed and improved.
If you cover up the problem without properly checking the problem in order to investigate the fundamental problem, someone will pass the cause on to other problems without responsibility. What is certain is that this team lost from the start.